SPIRITUAL WARFARE
(continued)
“And
I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war…and he had a name written, which no man knew,
but he himself” (Rev. 19:11-12).
It
sounds beautiful — our Lord and Captain has this wonderful name and it is just
His, a secret name, a title so important, a treasure so valuable that it is not
to be shared with any other. But that is
not the portrait the Holy Spirit is
painting! You see, this “unknown name”
is just the reason this great battle of chapter nineteen is about to take place
— because He has a name, or a nature, that mankind
does not know! No one but those who
are part of His many-membered body, made one
in Him, know the full and true nature of God’s Christ.
There
is a great symbolic battle described in Ezekiel, chapters thirty-eight and
thirty-nine. In this battle the Lord
comes forth and fights against Gog and Magog and gains the victory. The Lord then explains the purpose of His
great triumph, saying, “So will I make my holy name known in
the midst of my people Israel;
and I will not let them pollute my holy
name any more: and the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel” (Eze. 39:7). If, then, we are going to consider the
revelation that the Lord is riding into battle bearing a name that no man knows
but He Himself, we shall be obliged to recognize that that is not a good thing —
it is a bad thing that His name is not
known! The “names” of God and Christ
are never
mere empty designations. They are
expressions of the divine nature and character.
The fact that no one has known them and still does not know them except
Christ Himself means more than the names are secret. It means rather that no one knows them in their own personal experience. In other words, no human being outside of
Christ experientially shares these divine qualities and attributes in the
divine nature of Jesus which are represented by His name. For example, men may hear the name “Christ,”
but if they have never
personally experienced the “anointing” which we have received of Him, they
really don’t have the foggiest notion what the name “the Christ” is about!
Therefore,
the great truth that the Holy Spirit would make real to us today is that the wonderful purpose of
the battle, is that HIS NAME SHOULD BE KNOWN!
His name is His nature, and I am certain that every reader of these
lines is aware that men in general, and believers in particular, are abysmally
ignorant of the true nature of our
Lord Jesus Christ! The deepest desire of
our Lord is that the seed of God in every man should germinate and spring
forth, producing the life and image of
God in man.
As
brother Elwin Roach once pointed out in one of his papers, The Pathfinder, it is most interesting to note that the only place
we find names written upon people is in the book of
Revelation! There is one time in the Old
Testament, of course, that Aaron’s name was
written upon the rod of Levi, which was symbolic of the people themselves, that
is, the entire tribe of Levi. Aaron’s name — his nature, his position, his office, his authority
as high priest — was written upon the tribe of the priesthood that the rod
represented, and now, we see the fulfillment of that type in the last book of
the Bible. Let us take a moment and
notice the exclusive verses where we read about names being uniquely written
upon people.
“Him
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he
shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and
the
name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven
from my God: and I shall write upon him my new name” (Rev. 3:12).
“I
looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount
Zion,
and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in
their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1).
“His
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His
head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew,
but He Himself” (Rev. 19:12).
“And
He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS,
AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16).
The
new
name is the new nature of the resurrection power and glory of our ascended
Lord. It is not the name Jesus, or Lord,
or Christ, or even the name The Word of God.
As members of His body we have within ourselves the conscious experience
of the reality, power, and authority of all those names and many more. But none of these are His new name! None of them are the secret name that no man knows but He Himself! It is the name or nature of the resurrected,
ascended, glorified, enthroned Lord Jesus Christ in the heavens of the
Spirit! Many would settle for the name
of Jesus which means Saviour, and
that is a glorious name, but it is not the name that no man knows but Him, for millions have experienced Him in that
name which has been called upon them.
This secret name that none of us has fully experienced yet is the name
that Paul
yearned to know within himself when he cried, “Oh! that I might know
Him in the power of His resurrection, and in the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto
His death; if by any means I might attain to the resurrection out from among the dead.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am
apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I
count not myself to have apprehended: but
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:10-14). Can it be made any plainer? We have experienced Christ in many of His
names, putting on more and more of His nature and character, but that name
which is THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, GLORIFICATION, AND
ENTRHONEMENT — that full redemption in spirit, soul, and body — we do not yet fully
know
that name! We will know it when we ride with Him upon
the white horses! And when that great
battle is ended “all shall (fully) know
Him, from the least of them, to the greatest.”
HIS GARMENT SOAKED WITH BLOOD
“And
He was clothed in a vesture dipped in
blood…” (Rev. 19:13).
The
imagery of the scene in this passage is rooted in one of the prophecies of
Isaiah, wherein we read, “Who is this
that cometh from Edom,
with dyed garments from Bozrah? this
that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his
strength? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save! Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like
him that treadeth the winefat? I
have trodden the winepress alone: and of the people there was none with me: for
I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my
garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my
redeemed is come. And I looked, and
there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore
mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine
anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to
the earth” (Isa. 63:1-6).
It
is strange that any should interpret this as speaking of Jesus’ sufferings on
the cross, yet that is how many interpreters view it. The cross, however, does not reveal warfare, but the great love,
reconciliation, and redemption of God in Christ! Furthermore,
in the scene above it is not His own blood
that is shed in weakness and in meekness and in sacrifice, but the blood of foes
trampled in wrath. He is on His way to battle! And “every
battle of the warrior is with confused
noise and garments rolled in blood” (Isa. 9:5). The language is symbolic, of course. Jesus does not wield a literal sword of
steel; His sword is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. He does not go out physically killing
multitudes of people, and soaking His
garment with their blood. Rather, His
warfare is spiritual, He slays the enemies within
man, which appear as the man, but
are not the man that God intends. Oh,
yes! He slays men, but it is the natural man — the human consciousness, the
carnal mind, the ego, self-will, lust,
deception, fear, rebellion, bondage, and every sin of the old Adamic man.
Wielding His powerful sword of the spirit He comes upon the world of
natural, carnal-minded, sinning men, and He comes to judge and to make
war! His flaming eyes picture to us the holy passion
that burns in His bosom at this moment, now that He is ready to subdue the earth
and establish His righteous kingdom in the hearts of all men everywhere!
He
wears many diadems, royal
crowns, symbolic of victories won in the past.
This is not the first time He has won the battle! Spiritually, He has already overcome sin, the
devil, death, and hell within Himself. And
on His white horse of conquest He has already ridden into the lives of His
called and chosen elect, pressing the battle, conquering and to conquer. He overcame, subdued, and conquered all who
now ride with Him upon white horses, conscripting them into His own heavenly army. And therefore, many crowns that formerly
belonged to them He has already placed on His own head. The battle now revealed before the wondering
eyes of the Patmos seer is only the grand
climax of the holy war this captain has fought throughout the ages.
The
same truth is indicated
by the fact that as He rides forth with His army, even before He smites the
nations with His sword, His garment is already
soaked in blood! This is not the blood
of Calvary: for the garb He wears is the
garment of battle and of victory. But it
symbolically indicates that the Man from Edom,
with sprinkled garments as from Bozrah, has judged many an enemy before, all
through the age since all judgment was committed unto the Son, while now the
final scene has come, in which He shall tread the winepress of the passion of
God unto a glorious consummation. And
this is also indicated
by the sharp sword that proceeds out of His mouth. He shall surely not deign to fight as the
princes of this world fight, with their swords and spears (guns in the modern
world) in hand. No, He shall simply
consume the enemy by the word of His mouth.
His Word is His Sword! For it is
a word of power! It is a word of
judgment! And it is a word of life! It is a word that slays the natural man and
quickens the spiritual man! It mutilates
the flesh and makes alive the spirit! It
destroys the outer man and raises up the inner man! By it the enemies are defeated. By it they are judged. And therefore, He is now come as He was
pictured long ago in the second Psalm, for the purpose of treading the
winepress of God and ruling the nations with a rod of iron! He shall be Lord of all!
Frankly,
I never cease
to be amazed at those who profess to yearn for the sons of God to be
manifested, who continually quote the scripture about the whole creation
groaning, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, because THE CREATION ITSELF ALSO SHALL
BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION INTO THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY OF THE
CHILDREN OF GOD — and then when you tell them that the sons of God, who are the
armies out of heaven, shall really, truly, actually, factually, completely SET
ALL CREATION FREE they get all bent out of shape and call you a heretic, or ask
foolish questions like, “What good is it to believe that?” They are still afraid someone might not get
what they deserve — eternal
damnation! I have no hesitation in
telling you that if God is not going to do what He said; if the Christ isn’t
going to actually draw (Greek: drag) all men unto Himself; if the
whole creation and every creature is not going to be delivered into the
glorious liberty of the children of God; if God will not make all
men alive in Christ, just as all men died
in Adam; if the last enemy, death, and hell shall never be destroyed to never again exist anywhere in God’s great universe; if
the devil is going to possess the souls of the vast majority of men forever,
and thus be the victor; if God is never going to become “ALL in
all” or “everything to everyone everywhere,” which is the meaning of
that term; then I fail to see what is
the purpose in all the
qualifying for manifest sonship, for a glorious ministry in the age and the
ages to come, for THERE IS NO MINISTRY FOR THE SONS, AND NO FINAL AND TOTAL
TRIUMPH FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD! We may
as well forget about sonship; forget about being kings and priests unto God;
forget about setting creation free; and FORGET ABOUT BEING IN THE ARMY OF THE
LORD, RIDING OUT OF THE HEAVENS OF THE SPIRIT ON THE WHITE HORSES OF UNIVERSAL
CONQUEST! If no such army exists, if
redeemed men are not in it, and if it shall not ride forth and fight until all flesh everywhere is slain by His sword, then
let us content ourselves with our current church programs, and be satisfied
that while untold billions are damned to the flames of hell forever God shall
at least have His sweet little handful of saints to dance and shout with Him
over the hilltops of that glory world above!
The
next step in God’s great kingdom program is the ruling of the nations with a rod
of iron. There are many victories beyond
that before God is truly all-in-all!
According to the word of the Lord there is yet an age and also ages to
come! “That in the ages to come He might put on display the exceeding riches of
His grace in…us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). We are now standing at a transition of ages;
the church age is swiftly drawing to a close and the age of the manifestation
of the sons of God is nigh at hand. This
is not the end-time as many
Christians are wont to think. This is an end-time, but not the end-time. Every age has its “end,” and there are yet
ages to come! There was an end-time two
thousand years ago when the age of the law was brought to its conclusion, and
the age of grace dawned upon the earth.
The true and final “end-time” the Bible presents speaks of the final
consummation of all ages, the climax and
end of all times and dispensations, when God’s plan of the ages is fully
fulfilled. All words about THE END-TIME
close with Jesus reigning supreme over everything everywhere. “Then cometh the end, when He shall
have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For
He must reign until He hath put all
enemies under His feet. And when all
things have been subdued unto Him, then
shall the Son also be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God
may be ALL IN
ALL” (I Cor. 15:24-25,28).
The
word “subdued” means “to line up as a troop or an army in subordination or
surrender.” The verb appears three times
in the passage above, in verse twenty-eight.
Literally from the Greek it reads, “Now when the universe shall be lined
up as a troop in subordination to Him, then also Himself the Son shall be lined
up as a troop in subordination to the One
lining up a troop in subordination to Him, in order that God may be
everything to everyone everywhere.” What
a word! What a plan! What love!
What wondrous love! What a
victory! What a glorious
consummation! The might of God’s
strength which operated in Christ, raising Him from the dead, was sufficient to
exalt Him to the highest pinnacle of the universe, thus insuring that all His
enemies would be subdued unto Him, that is, reconciled unto Him, that every
opposing power would be made subordinate to Him, that all sin and death in
every realm and in every man and in every creature throughout all the unbounded
heavens would be so swallowed up of HIS LIFE until God would be ALL IN ALL,
bless His glorious name! The conquest of
Jesus Christ and the armies out of heaven!
Truly it is not just for this age, but extends to all ages and all
realms. May the truth of it flood our
hearts that they may, indeed,
be illuminated with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ!
This
kind of total subjugation to God is that which is now being wrought in the
“firstfruit company” of God’s elect.
Have you really surrendered yourself
to God? This is what God demands. In numerous places, in various ways, in
different words, God says the same thing over and over again. And yet, sometimes it seems that we fail to
get the message: Yield yourselves to God!
Submit yourselves to Christ!
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice!
Lay down your life! Present
yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead! Yield not your members as instruments of
unrighteousness but as instruments of righteousness unto God! Put off the old man! Put on the mind of Christ! Come out of the harlot Babylon!
Walk in the Spirit! Bring every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ! Again and again, God says the same
thing. The first thing a private learns
in the army is submission. If we
would ride with Christ in His heavenly army, that is the first thing we, too,
must learn. And what He now requires of
us, His firstfruits, He ultimately requires of the whole creation!
It
seems that, usually, we are ready to do almost anything but surrender ourselves
to God. I recall the time when the
British general came to surrender to Washington. The general began with a flowery speech in
which he praised Washington
for his magnificent military tactics and the way he had conducted the
campaigns. He was eloquently praising Washington when Washington suddenly
interrupted him with these words: “Your sword, sir!” Similarly we come to offer God the flattery of our lips,
the praise of our hymns. And God is
saying to us, “Your sword, sir!”
Surrender is what God wants!
Total surrender of all our will, our ways, and our lives! It is, in fact, during the process of
conquering us and taking from us our fleshly sword that His garment becomes
soaked with blood! But, praise His name,
He will conquer us, take our fleshly sword, conscript us, retrain us in the
ways and tactics of spiritual warfare,
and raise us up to ride with Him in His army.
Oh, the wonder of it!
The
following words by George D. Watson will help us see the unsurpassable beauty
and majesty of what it really means to be SUBDUED UNTO GOD. “Before God can launch us out into the breadth and sweetness of
His service, and entrust to us great things for Himself, we must be perfectly
subdued in every part of our nature to His will and the disposition of His
mind. We must be subdued in our hearts,
in our wills, in our words, in our tempers,
in our manners; subdued through and through so thoroughly that we will be
flexible to all His purposes and plans.
We must be subdued so that harshness, severity, criticism, sluggishness,
laziness, impetuosity, and all wanting our way, even in religious matters, must
be subdued out of us. Conversion will
not finish this work.
“We
must be subdued, not merely in our
opinion, not merely think ourselves subdued, not only subdued in the esteem of
our friends and fellow workers, but subdued so perfectly that the all-seeing
eye of God can look us through, and the omniscient One knows that we are
subdued. God must conquer the man that
He can trust with His great thoughts and plans.
The Holy Ghost must saturate us with a divine conquest, before He can
use us to conquer other souls. The Lord
will begin to subdue us with gentle means; and if we sink lovingly and promptly
into His mind, the work will be done; but if we have flint or iron in our
nature, and it is necessary, He will use heroic means and put us between the
millstones and grind us to powder, until He can mold us without any resistance
to His purpose. We must be so subdued
that we can hold our tongues, and walk softly with God, keep our eyes upon
Jesus, attend to our own work, and do God’s will promptly and lovingly, glad to
have a place in His Kingdom.
“Oh!
it is grand to be absolutely conquered by the Holy Ghost, and swing out a
thousand miles from everybody and everything into the ocean of God’s
presence. When we are subdued in the
sight of God, He will work miracles in us, and power in experience, in healing,
in finance, in service, in gentleness, and
in sweetness of the inner heart life; miracles of grace that will
astonish us and surprise our friends, and utterly amaze our enemies, when they
come to know the magnitude of what God has wrought. Let us get subdued in every way, in everything!” — end quote.
Oh,
the ineffable glory to be revealed when ALL
RULE AND ALL AUTHORITY AND ALL
POWER AND ALL ENEMIES AND ALL THINGS SHALL BE
SUBDUED UNTO CHRIST AND GOD SHALL BE ALL IN ALL! That is the goal of the Rider of the white
horse and those blessed ones who ride with Him.
What expectation this evokes in our hearts!
A
little seed is the beginning of a great tree.
A mustard seed becomes a tree in which the birds of the air can
nestle. That great day when Christ shall
deliver up the kingdom to the Father, and God
shall be All in All — that is the great tree of the kingdom of God
reaching its perfect consummation and glory.
Ah, beloved, let us take the seed of that glory into our hearts and let
us bow in lowly surrender and humble submission, saying with a broken heart and
contrite spirit, “Amen, Lord; this be my one thought, this be my life — to
yield myself to the unutterable yearnings of the Holy Spirit that I may not
rest, but ever keep my vision set on that day — the day of surpassing glory,
when in very deed God shall be ALL IN
ALL.” God help everyone who reads these
lines, God help us all to yield ourselves to Him, that we may be in the fullest
and total sense the FIRSTFRUITS OF HIS KINGDOM.
This is the beginning, the power, and the glory, of the kingdom of God! Amen!
HIS NAME — THE WORD OF GOD
“And
He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God” (Rev. 19:13).
My
heart leaps within me for joy as I contemplate this beautiful theme of His Name — The Word of God. It is
an instructive thing to know that God has never been silent. God’s a talker! This truth is basic to spiritual
understanding. Had God remained silent,
we would either not exist at all, or our situation would be desperate. If God is a talker, then we had best be
listeners. “God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son…by whom also He made the worlds” (Heb.
1:1-2). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God…all things were made by Him”
(Jn. 1:1-3). “And God said, Let there be…and there was” (Gen.
1:3). God has always been a talker, but
the writer to the Hebrews tells us that all God has ever spoken is now embodied in Christ. “God hath spoken unto us by His Son.” The Amplified Bible says, “But in the last of these
days He has spoken to us in the person of
a Son…” The Greek text, however, reads simply, “God has spoken
to us IN SON.” IN SON! Or God spoke to us in One who has the
character that He is a SON, revealing the realm and relationship of sonship to
God. It means more than the idea that
God spoke through His Son; it
signifies that God spoke in son, that
is, SONSHIP IS THE MESSAGE! God spoke
through Christ’s Sonship. “If you have
seen me, you have seen the Father.” Sonship is the revelation of the
Father. Therefore, it was more than the
words that Jesus spoke; it was the life He lived! HE was the message! HE was the word!
Ah,
dear heart, Look at His sonship, and then look at the whole realm of sonship;
look at all the enChristed ones who make up the vast family of His “many brethren,”
and IN THEM you see the message God is sending into the world! When you see the sons, at last you see what
God is like. In the publishing world, it
is sometimes said that a particular book is a definitive work. In other words, the book is a standard by
which all future work will be judged or compared. Sonship is the definitive revelation of God, the
standard for all time. Jesus is
the firstborn of this Word Company, and the pattern and prototype of all that
it says. He is uniquely and supremely
THE WORD. If someone asks what is
revealed in this definitive revelation, we could say, it’s all in the little
preposition “with.” He is “God with us,” in union with us, one with
us. It’s more than simply being
present. That is the mystery!
The
Greek term for “Word” in our text is logos. There are two primary Greek words from
which our English “word” is translated — rhema
and logos. When you study the scriptures you have to
get beyond the surface or “letter” of the word and find its true spiritual
meaning, intention, and reality — the “spirit” of the word. The “letter” is the outer shell or husk,
whereas the “spirit” is the inner kernel, the nutritional substance. Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life”
(Jn. 6:63). Jesus was talking about the “spirit” of the
word — its inner life and power! When we
talk about the spirit of the word, we are talking about the “logos” of the “rhema.” The rhema signifies a word expressed or
spoken, whereas the logos denotes the
inner power, intention, reality, and revelation of that word. If someone was making you a proposition and
you just weren’t interested and were perhaps even annoyed by it, you might tell
them, “Go jump in the lake.” The “rhema”
of that word would be for them to find a nearby lake and literally jump into
it. But the “logos” of that word (the
inner meaning, true intention) is for them to stop trying to convince you and
just leave you alone. The outward
understanding of words does not really convey the true inner meaning. Nowhere is this more true than when you begin
to try and understand spiritual truth that is being expressed in human
terms. And this is just the reason most Christians
and nearly all preachers have completely missed
the true meaning and message of the book of Revelation! They focus on the letter of the word and never
uncover the spirit of the word!
Nobel
laureate professor of biology at Harvard
University, the late
George Wald, may have provided us an insight into the wonder of life in an
essay he wrote entitled “Life and Mind in the Universe.” He wrote, “It
has occurred to me lately — I must confess with some shock at first to my
scientific sensibilities — that both questions (the origin of consciousness in
humans and of life from non-living matter) might be brought into some degree of
congruence. This is with the assumption
that mind, rather than emerging at a late outgrowth in the evolution of life,
has existed always as the matrix, the source and condition of physical reality
— the stuff of which physical reality is composed is mind-stuff. It is mind that has composed a physical
universe that breeds life and so eventually evolves creatures that know and create
science, art, and technology-making beings.
In them the universe begins to know itself.”
That
is science, not theology, speaking. But
it is also theology! “In the beginning
was the Word (logos)...and the Word was God…all things were made by
Him!” “Logos” is the Greek word for
“logic,” “intellect,” “word.” Hundreds
of years before John penned those words the Psalmist wrote, “By the word of the
Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Ps. 33:6). And before that we find the opening sentence
of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.
1:1). That is the traditional
reading. But there is a problem
here. The Hebrew word bereshit in its simple sense translates
as “In the beginning of.”
But there is no object in the Hebrew text for the preposition “of.” So we would have to read it, “In the beginning of God created the
heavens and the earth.” Yet — that
doesn’t sound right, does it? So let me
ask, “In the beginning of what?” The
compound nature of “Bereshit” holds the clue to the meaning of the
statement. The ancient Hebrew text has the “B” of
“Bereshit” written twice the size of the remaining letters of the word. And that has significance! A more accurate rendering of the verse is “(B)
With (reshit)
a first cause God created the heavens and the earth.” And what was that “reshit,” that first
cause of Bereshit? The apostle
John gives us the answer: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. ALL THINGS WERE MADE BY HIM; AND WITHOUT HIM
WAS NOT ANYTHING MADE THAT WAS MADE. IN
HIM WAS LIFE; AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN.” Oh, yes!
The “first cause” is said to be “the Word.” “And God said,
Let there be…and there was.”
By
the logos, the will, intent, inner
power, reality, and revelation of His word God created. It was not merely a rhema, a spoken word; no, it was the inner kernel, the divine
substance, the inward will, the purpose, yea, the very heart and nature of God
that spoke all things into existence!
It’s as though He spoke Himself
into manifestation outside Himself! Ah, this solves the puzzle of the origin of
sentient life able to be aware of its own existence and to explore the very mysteries and powers of
creation, as well as the ability to know and fellowship and participate with
the Creator! We are the offspring of
God, a word out of The Word, and therefore we have mind and
conscious being and spiritual identity, for we are an emanation of the One who
brought us forth into being. Speech
originates in thought, thought is
consciousness, words are thought converted into sound, and creation is that
sound converted into substance. Truly, we are created by the Word! Oh, the wonder
of it!
From
the earliest dawn of history there have been means of communication between men. At one time smoke from fires was the way one
group connected to another, sending signs and symbols to communicate their
message. Then progressively they used flags, riders on horses,
books, the telegraph and then eventually radio, telephone, and television. Now it is fax machines and computers and even
wireless means of communication with much of our international communication
coming via satellite. But God has been
into wireless communication from eternity via His Living Word! His satellite of love, wisdom, and power sends messages to us, but our dish has to be pointed in the
right direction in order to receive His message! We have to point our hearts, our minds, our
paradigms, our attitudes in the right
direction, toward spirit and away
from flesh, toward God’s speech and away from man’s words.
An
abundance of scripture points to the fact that Christ, the Word, was before Bethlehem. He is just as real in the Old Testament as He
is in the New Testament. The great
difference, of course, is that in the New Testament He became flesh. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” The
Word did not become a philosophy, a theory, or a concept to be discussed,
debated, or pondered, but a Person to be seen, heard, touched,
handled, known, and experienced! “The
Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” That’s how Eugene Peterson describes this
event in The Message. Others have
rendered it to say that Jesus “tented” among us. That’s what happened when Jesus came into the
world, the Living Word of God moved into our neighborhood and set up camp!
How
could the Word become flesh? How could
God become a man? The literal here has
it, not that the Word “was made” flesh, as we have it in the King James Bible,
but that the Word “became” flesh. There
is a vast difference between these two propositions! If I say, “The wood was made into a chair,” it denotes an action upon, an action from
without; some person or force beyond the wood acted upon the wood and the wood,
by no involvement on its own part, was
made into a chair. If, on the other
hand, I say, “The young man became a
doctor,” it denotes an action on the part of the subject. Nobody outside of the young man forced him
and somehow “made” him a doctor, but he himself went to medical school,
studied, burned the midnight oil, passed the exams, fulfilled his internship,
and thus became a doctor. “Was made” bespeaks of an action upon the
object from without, whereas “became” bespeaks of a personal accomplishment
from within.
How
could He who was God become a man? Look
again at this statement by the inspired apostle: “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:1,14). It says, “In the beginning was the Word,” and
it does not say, “In the beginning was Jesus,” because Jesus wasn’t in
the beginning. It was not until the Word
became flesh that He was Jesus. The Son of God is not the Word — the Son of
God is “the Word made flesh.” The
passage quoted above tells us that only after the Word became flesh did we
behold the glory of the Son, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. The truth is just this — In the
beginning was the Word — and there was no Son of God until the Word became flesh. People talk about the “eternal” Son
of God. The Bible speaks of no such
thing. The Word is eternal, not the
Son. Of the Son the Father says, “Thou
art my Son, this day have I BEGOTTEN
THEE.” Nowhere do we read that on a
certain day the Word was begotten.
No! The Word was “in the
beginning.” But when the Word becomes
flesh — then you have the Son! The Son
is the Word, yes, but the Son is more than the Word — the Son is the Word in
another form — made flesh! John speaks
of the eternal Word of God and then shows how the Word became flesh. From that moment on he never speaks again of the Word, he calls Him
Jesus.
Isn’t that amazing? Before Bethlehem He was the Word, He was God; but when He came to
Bethlehem and
took upon Him flesh He became Jesus, the Son
of God. This is precisely the
message the angel gave to Mary that blessed day in Nazareth, “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy
womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the
Son of the Highest…” (Lk. 1:31-32).
Jesus
said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Also
He said, “My Father worketh hitherto (has always been working) and I work.” He and the Father were working long before Bethlehem! As we have already pointed out, He was
working in the very first verse of Genesis.
The prophet Micah prophesied that the Christ would come forth from Bethlehem but that “His
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” His footprints were manifested in this world
through long millenniums before the prints were made in His hands. Not only is Christ referred to in the first
verse of Genesis, but there are also many evidences of His presence throughout
the Old Testament.
There
is a remarkable statement occurring in the record of Adam
and Eve in the garden of Eden:
“And they heard the voice of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of
the day: and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of
the garden” (Gen. 3:8). The expression
for God is rather unusual — “The voice of the Lord God.” Then, to add to the strangeness of the verse,
it is stated that “the voice of the Lord God walked in the garden.” Now,
it is very unusual to have a voice
walking! It reminds us of the old play
on words, “Did you ever see a board walk or did you ever see a horse fly?” However this statement is not so unusual when we discover that the One
who is the Living Word of God identified
Himself as the “alphabet of God.” He
said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end (of the alphabet)” (Rev. 21:6).
Four times in the book of Revelation Christ so identifies Himself as the
complete alphabet of God! No wonder John
was able to say of the One riding the white horse of conquest, “…and His name
is called The Word of God!” As you know, words are formed from the
alphabet. Every word in human language
is formed from the letters of the alphabet.
The voice is the word made articulate.
The alphabet is translated into a word, and the word is energized into a
voice. Christ is thus the voice of the Lord God. Time after time throughout the Old
Testament we read the prophets saying, “And the word of the Lord came unto me,
saying…” They were hearing the Christ!
Have
you not noticed how we often connect the word word with certain people?
For example, the boss is the person who has the what? The final word. The news reporter is the person we ask,
“What’s the latest word? We introduce a world-famous designer by
saying something like, “Here’s the woman with the word about fashion.” To
connect someone with the word word is
to suggest that such a person has expertise and, therefore, authority. We pay careful attention to people with
expertise and authority. Now the
scripture goes one step further. John, both in his epistles and in the
Revelation, reveals the great truth that
our Lord not only has the Word, but
that He is the Word. That’s a giant step! But that’s exactly what the Holy Spirit would
make real within our hearts. In the Old
Testament the prophets heard the Word, received the Word, had the Word. But Jesus
didn’t merely have the Word — He is the
Word! He is the Truth! He is the Life! He always has been. He always will be.
Our
hearts respond with reverence when we read John’s first encounter with Christ
in his visions on Patmos. “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me.
And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of
the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man” (Rev. 1:12-13). There was a voice walking in the garden of Eden,
and John turned to see a voice on the Isle of Patmos. The voice of the Lord God in the Garden,
which Adam saw,
and the voice on Patmos, which John saw, are identical. The steps of The Word of God, the Christ, can be followed through the scripture
record all the way between Genesis and Revelation. In Genesis, chapter eighteen, Abraham served
dinner to the Lord who came and talked
with him. Jacob wrestled with a Stranger
at night, but at dawn he found out that it was Someone more than just a
man. When the wrestling was over and
after he had been blessed (through words) by this Being, notice what Jacob
said: “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is
preserved.” It is a deep mystery, but Jacob
wrestled with God, He touched God, he saw God, and he talked with God face to
face! It was Christ, the Word, who from
the bush on mount Horeb spoke to Moses, saying, “I AM THAT I AM…thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto
you.”
It
is a glorious tribute to our Lord Jesus Christ to measure the time of our
calendar from His birth in Bethlehem,
but actually the expression “Before Christ” is blatantly inaccurate! You cannot get before Christ in time! He
stood on the threshold when time began as “The Ancient of Days,” and now He is
revealed as who He is — THE WORD OF GOD that liveth and abideth forever! Yet, it is not enough to know that Jesus
Christ is the Living Word of God. Even
the devils know that, and tremble! We
also have the word logos used in I
Peter 1:23, “Being born again by the Word of God…” As sons we are not born of the Son, we
are born of the Word who became the Son.
Can you not see the mystery? Just
as the Word became flesh to become Jesus the Son, so the Word must become flesh
within us, that is, become substance
— reality, concreteness, solidity, form —
thereby revealing our
sonship! To be born of the Word, we
shall speak and emanate truth because we have become truth. That is His name because that is WHAT HE IS!
You
see, my beloved, you came into this world out of the bosom of the Father. Before the Creator formed you, He knew
you. He didn’t know you in your present
physical form as Joe Smith or Sally Brown, just as He didn’t know the Word as
Jesus of Nazareth until the Word became flesh.
He knew you as spirit. Paul
states it so clearly when He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: according as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love…having
predestinated us unto placement as sons
by Jesus Christ unto Himself” (Eph. 1:3-5). Never
doubt this reality for a moment — the only way God could have known you, loved
you, chose you in Christ, and predestinated you to sonship before the foundation of the world is that you truly existed in and
with Him before the appearing of the worlds.
Nothing can be plainer than that!
The question follows — If we were chosen “in Christ” before the
foundation of the world — whom or what were we chosen in? Who was He then? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.” The truth is just this: If we were chosen in
Christ before the world began, then we were chosen IN THE WORD! To be “born of the Word” is to be a word out of The Word!
Oh,
yes! GOD IS BRINGING FORTH
A WORD COMPANY, and He will perfect that which concerneth them, bringing it to
a successful conclusion at His appointed time.
His elect, His chosen, His sons are to be a certain kind of firstfruits
of Himself. God is causing His Word to become flesh, substantial, to take form, to
be real and powerful within us so that we do not merely speak the words of
God, but that our name, as His name, should be called The Word of God! He will finish the WORD, He will complete and fulfill
His WORD by bringing forth a WORD COMPANY, a seed through whom all the world
shall be blessed. Ray Prinzing often
said, “The message and the messenger must become one.” It is not just a word which he speaks, it is
WHAT HE IS. And when we become a manifestation
of the Logos, it is because from this Word we are born.
Ah,
this is why HE who IS the Word of God comes riding out of the heavens of God’s
Spirit upon a white horse in righteousness to judge and make war — and the
armies which were in heaven follow Him, they also ride upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Those comprising this glorious army HAVE THEMSELVES BECOME THE WORD OF
GOD. They are the Word Company! God fights His battles by His Word! Not just a verbal declaration, but a Living
Company who were chosen “in the Word” before the foundation of the world! Yet they do
speak out of their state of being!
Oh, the mystery of it!
God
is equipping His elect sons by revealing the power of words — the Word. Thus saith the scripture: “But the
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall
descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? THE WORD IS NIGH THEE, EVEN IN THY MOUTH, AND IN THY HEART…” What word?
“The word of faith which we
preach” (Rom.
10:6-8). It is the word of power, the
word of salvation, the word of the kingdom, the word of life over death. When you realize how powerful words are, by
virtue of believing words that are God in you, and which can change and
transform you, then you will understand just how “at hand” the kingdom of God
really is. You see, the Logos — the
speaking — is God. “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.”
And the Word still is God!
So when Jesus appeared on earth all He had to do was say, “Be made whole,” and the power of
the word worked, for His word was God in
expression and manifestation.
The
essence of
divine words is God. This is not so
difficult to understand when you realize that everything in life is moved by
words. There isn’t anything that isn’t
done by words. The method of educating
our children is with numbers and letters.
With numbers and letters, configured in various forms, you raise the educational
and functional level of a human being from nothing
at the time of birth, to become a surgeon, a politician, an architect, a
nuclear physicist, or accomplishment in a vast number of fields. We have surgeons that perform heart
transplants. They are people just like
you and me. The only difference is the
words of letters and numbers that are ingrained within their thinking. The combinations of that learning, the disciplines
of those sciences of mathematics, medicine, politics, etc., have given to them
a different personality and potentiality.
They have a consciousness that enables them to open you up and change
out the organs of your body. Let me ask
you something — would you let me open
up your rib cage and take your heart out?
Of course not — and I wouldn’t ask you to! And you know why — you know the knowledge
contained in those words and letters which produce that skill are not in
me! The words and letters used in
medical school have not trained me to be a doctor.
The
greatest doctor started out as a baby with no knowledge, no ability, no
accomplishment, no skill. He started out
with nothing in his head — just like you and me! The only difference is that someone took the time and expended
the energy to instruct him and put the knowledge of medical science into that
person who by the assimilation and experience of that knowledge became that
reality. You see, Jesus said that the kingdom of God
is no more a mystery than a man planting seed in soil. He said that if you would plant the seed in
the ground and water it, while the sun shines upon it, it will produce a plant
that you can neither understand nor explain.
He said, “So is the kingdom
of God.” If you will just take the time and effort to
plant the Word of God in your mind and heart, and water it with the Spirit by
exposing yourself to His presence, and give it the light of inspiration, it
will grow of itself and make you something you weren’t! You will grow up into the WORD COMPANY!
Brother
Carl Schwing expressed this same beautiful truth when he wrote: “The knowledge
of the truth, brings forth the reality.
To behold the truth, is to become the truth. To become the truth, is to establish the
truth. WE MUST LIVE BY EVERY WORD OF GOD
THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE LIVING GOD! And those words are not just words for the
speaking…they give life…they are life…they create life. The Word of God is the continual progression of God…leading ever into the
fullness of Himself. Even as He has no
beginning or end, so it is with His Word…ever progressing, ever expanding, ever
increasing…and it is, my brothers and sisters…the incorruptible seed which fell
into the fertile ground of our quickened spirits, to blossom forth as the sons
of God…that they might become the Living Expression of His Word…the Word that
will give life to all that was, and is, and is to come. Speak, O Spirit of the Mighty God, and bring
the ‘many membered’ Word together…breathe
upon them till they rise up as a mighty Son-Company unto Thee. Give birth, Thou Eternal One, to the
Everlasting Gospel…that Thy Sons might stand in the presence of Thy person and
proclaim that Gospel ages without
end. Hallelujah!”
Are
you living in the past?
Remembering what Christ said…
To
disciples ‘way back then…
Is this your Daily Bread?
Does
God’s word come at “second hand,”
That He’s said to another…
And
has His word just filtered down
From brother on to brother?
You
think God’s mute…forgotten how
To speak to folks today?
And
all He says, is what He’s said
‘Has nothing more to say?
God’s
speaking now! He speaks the same
As first His word was heard,
In
fact, “King James” is not His name;
His name’s “THE LIVING WORD.”
Who
has an eye, then let them read
Things that the Bible said.
But
let him hear, who has an ear —
Hear God!
For He’s not dead.
God’s
not just book, of ink and paper,
A version or translation
Of
history — but greater;
He’s “right now” revelation.
Yes,
read the scriptures, they are fine…
Heavenly words — anybody’s version.
He’s
more than chapter, verse, and line,
Our Lord’s a “real live” person!
— By Bob Robin
To
be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
